University of Bristol

Although Gascoigne had always intended to study mathematics at Cambridge, an event occurred that significantly shaped his career. In 1931,[notes 1] an earthquake in New Zealand killed Michael Hiatt Baker, a young traveller from Bristol, and his parents established a postgraduate scholarship in his memory, for study at the University of Bristol,[1][7] which Gascoigne won and took up in 1938.[2] During his thesis studies at Bristol, Gascoigne developed a diffraction theory of the Foucault test that is used for evaluating the shape of large telescope mirrors.[1] He completed his doctorate in physics in 1941, but by then war had broken out in Europe, and he had already returned to New Zealand on the last available ship.[1][2][4]